Catherine Bailey was a beautiful and fun loving young woman. She had great friends and she loved to party. Going out to various clubs with her friends to drink and dance the night away was among her most favorite things to do. Guy hunting was also a favorite past time even though she often found herself waking up in a strange bed after a night on the town with a raging hangover, not remembering a lot of what went on the previous night. In spite of all these things, or maybe because of them, Catherine is happy. She wants all of the things that other women like her want and she truly believes she's found them when she meets the very handsome Lee Brightman.

He happens to be working security at the door of a very popular nightclub and that's how they met. Their courtship is fast, furious, and passionate. If there's any problem, it's that Lee's job takes him away for days at a time. He says he can't tell her what sort of job he has just yet, but will tell her when he can. Catherine is quite proud of Lee in the beginning and introduces him to all of her closest friends. Her friends also adore him.

As time goes on, though, Lee starts to exhibit some very disturbing signs. He starts following her and tracking her every move. Catherine's life is no longer her own. Lee controls every part of it and if she balks at any of it, he gets violent. Things spiral out of control and Catherine tries to get help but finds that no one, not even her closest friends, believe her about Lee. They don't believe that the perfect man is actually the perfect nightmare. It takes a savage attack on her life to get Lee locked up for 3 years.

Now, her body has healed, but the trauma remains. Calling herself Cathy now, she's relocated and has a job that she's good at. However, she's developed a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and spends a great deal of her life checking her doors and windows while also taking various routes home from work each day.

In spite of all this, Cathy manages to meet Stuart, a new tenant in her building. Stuart likes her immediately, but Cathy resists his efforts at friendship at first. Finally, she gives in and agrees to have tea with him. They begin a very cautious relationship that has Cathy finally believing that she may be able to have a life again. Just as she starts to settle into her new existence and treatment program, she gets a phone call that has her spiraling down the Rabbit Hole once more.

Lee has been released from prison.

INTO THE DARKEST CORNER is the debut novel of Elizabeth Haynes, and I hope there are many more books from this writer. She takes you and holds you in her terrifying grasp until she's ready to let you go. I felt all of poor Cathy's emotions through the entire book. Only INTO THE DARKEST CORNER!

Book Summary

When young, pretty Catherine Bailey meets Lee Brightman, she can't believe her luck. Gorgeous, charismatic, and a bit mysterious, Lee seems almost too perfect to be true.

But what begins as flattering attention and spontaneous, passionate sex transforms into raging jealousy, and Catherine soon discovers that Lee's dazzling blue eyes and blond good looks hide a dark, violent nature. Disturbed by his increasingly erratic, controlling behavior, she tries to break it off; turning to her friends for support, she's stunned to find they don't believe her. Increasingly isolated and driven into the darkest corner of her world, a desperate Catherine plans a meticulous escape.

Four years later, Lee is behind bars and Catherine—now Cathy—is trying to build a new life in a new city. Though her body has healed, the trauma of the past still haunts her. Then Stuart Richardson, her attractive new neighbor, moves in. Encouraging her to confront her fears, he sparks unexpected hope and the possibility of love and a normal life.

Until the day the phone rings . . .